Hello.  My name is Sandra Thorne, and I am a La Leche League Leader
in Florida.   I've been a Leader and on LACTNET for about 2 1/2
months, and this is my first post.

Today I received a call from a mom with a problem for
which I can't seem to find documentation.

She has a 2 month old child who weighs 13 pounds.  He is nursing
well, however, whenever she nurses her hands go numb. It happens at
the same time as the let down.  She has seen a doctor about this
and she has had  CAT scans and an MRI, they are normal.  She has an
older child who nursed and mom did not have this problem.  She states
she gets tired when nursing -- I reassured her that this was a common
effect of  nursing hormones -- and she has lost "gosh maybe 70
pounds" without dieting  (she weighed over 200lbs pre-pregnancy.  I
was same in this weight area pre-pregnancy and  lost 50 pounds --
I told her that this is not unusual ).

She is very committed to breastfeeding and says that as long as this
numbness does not point to something wrong with her, then she will
continue to breastfeed.

Interesting enough, we recently had a mom at a meeting report the
same numbness, but she was not worried as it disappeared.  If there
is any evidence to support that this is caused by hormones, I would
like a reference to point this mom and her doctor to.  I checked the
LACTNET archives, the Womanly Art, and The Breastfeeding Answer Book.
I then went to an IBCLC's  (and fellow LACNETter's)  house and looked
at her  Breastfeeding and Human Lactation and Breastfeeding: A Guide
for the Professional and still did not find anything.

Thanks;

Sandra Thorne, LLL Leader
Port St Lucie, FL
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